For some reason, despite countless Australian travelers to the US taking their iPhones with them, I found it hard to find decent information on how to get a US prepaid SIM with data and use it successfully. A friend of mine had used T-Mobile when he was here, but the iPhone works only on 2G with their network. Being a bit of a fusspot, I wanted 3G and therefore AT&T was the obvious choice. Unfortunately, AT&T are a big fat pain in the arse.

I won’t bore you with the tedious 2 day ordeal that was trying to get the whole thing going. Instead, here is a recipe so that you needn’t suffer the same annoyance.

You’ll need a carrier unlocked iPhone.

1. Go to an AT&T outlet and buy a GoPhone prepaid SIM. (iPhones are not normally allowed on prepaid, but the shop assistant was able to put some other phone’s IMEI in to the system when activating my SIM. It’s possible the store you go to will refuse to sell you a prepaid SIM for an iPhone- in that case, either try another store or bring some other handset for the IMEI.)

2. Add credit, and a data pack. I chose the $2 per day unlimited talk and text plan. $28 for 2 weeks isn’t too horrible. The SIM itself is $20. 500 MB is $25.

I’m going to NYC in a couple of weeks, which is very exciting. What is also exciting is that the USD is, um, not doing so great. Many folks have been talking about the Aussie dollar being particularly strong, but I’m not convinced. Here is a picture to illustrate why I’m not convinced:

Click for big!

I mean, the Aussie’s not doing too badly, but … yeah. There you have it.